


The Wall

by garbagebear (paranoidparsnip)



Series: TG drabbles [4]
Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Angst, But today is not that day, Canon Divergance, Dark, Gen, Gross descriptions of stuff, Hide/Kaneki (implied), Kinda grizzly, M/M, Mid-Anteiku Raid, ONE DAY I SHALL WRITE HAPPY THINGS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-12
Updated: 2015-09-12
Packaged: 2018-04-18 05:47:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4694336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paranoidparsnip/pseuds/garbagebear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Behind him was a concrete wall, it was frigid with the winter temperatures and patiently bore a red streak across it's front as he limped in the direction of the shop.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Wall

**Author's Note:**

> Can be seen as a sequel to Porcelain or standalone.

The sounds of gunshots had become a norm, this evening, as the militarized force fought like a hurricane against the ghouls. When once such a sound would have been startling, it was more horrifying when it stopped. Snowfall began settling along the ground, drifting in icy flurries over the still cooling cadavers that littered the ground, tossed here and there carelessly. In semblance of a child's playroom where discarded toys and dolls lie without any consideration. And here he was struggling to stand, oozing out onto the powdery white ground and staining it with his ichor.

Kaneki grimaced, holding the aching crater of his abdomen in attempts to keep it from draining too rapidly. It would heal, naturally, but not quick enough at this rate. Anteiku, he had to get to Anteiku. It didn't matter that he wasn't sure what he was going to do when he got there, he didn't think Hinami would still be there - Yoshimura would have gotten her to someplace safe- but Touka, Irimi, Koma and the manager himself...

Behind him was a concrete wall, it was frigid with the winter temperatures and patiently bore a red streak across it's front as he limped in the direction of the shop. At least, he hoped it was in this direction. Blood loss had made him more than a little discombobulated and his sluggish thoughts lurched brokenly like his own movement. _Pathetic, weak, feeble_ his mind scorned him. _Failure. This is your fault._

"I have... to save... them." He said aloud, to no one in particular. Each shallow inhale of the bitter, winter air caused his lungs to tighten in protest and burned his throat.

He needed to eat, but it was too dangerous to risk venturing out into the maelstrom of slaughter again, and he didn't have enough energy to fight. The alleyway felt as if it grew longer to spite his inadequacy. Dragging himself forward, foot by foot through this back passage, leaving a trail painted along the wall that might as well been an arrow. But it was then that he caught the scent, a sweet, enticing aroma that danced through his nostrils and made saliva excitedly drip of its own volition. Flesh. Flesh. _Human._

At the end, where the alley opened up and exited into the street, a motionless shape was dusted with snow. Suited in CCG's raid attire and sprawled ungracefully, a human corpse awaited him like a home cooked meal. Truthfully, had he the time or ability, Kaneki would have liked to gorge himself this one time, feasting until the bloating point before returning to his business. Fighting so many was tiring to the breaking point. Yet as time leaped past in precious moments, this luxury was not allowed. Making his way over to the corpse painfully, he tried to figure out the most time efficient manner to go about feeding. This armor, he knew, was a challenge to get through on a good day, when he had strength to employ his kagune fully. Trying to remove it not only was time consuming but also risky, should someone else see him it would be a dead giveaway that he was a ghoul.

Upon arriving at his new found blessing, he decided to go for the easier piece of meat accessible - the neck. Besides having little meat, the neck is not a particularly choice section to devour, as it consists mostly of cartilage, tendons, veins of all shape and consistency, and near impossible to eat transport pipes. The windpipe had a plastic feel to it making the end result almost inedible, along with the bursting highways of blood that gushed into his mouth, he despised having to make such a mess out of this person but for now forced the guilt to a far corner of his mind.

Kaneki had been close to reaching the point of abandoning the corpse and continuing towards Anteiku, however, something new caught his attention. Footsteps, in hurried stomps that signified running to or from something. Sure enough, movement appeared from an alley parallel towards his own and an armored figure stood, panting, in the street. Craning his head up from the mangled body, he glared with level contempt at the intruder mid-bite. Gore spread across Kaneki's exhausted, pale features stood out shockingly. Shredded pieces of skin hung like scraps of rubber from the corners of his mouth, ripped muscle fibers between his teeth like threads of meat, all the while dripping with a combination of pinkish spit and cold blood. Swallowing, he tensed and readied himself to lunge at the soldier, he felt that he could take on a single combatant now that he had eaten.

Perhaps it was because he was still injured and disoriented, but he hesitated for a moment under the dim streetlight. His face seemed familiar - had he fought him before? After coaxing the four, savage tendrils from his lower back, the human facing him blanched in terror which gave way to desperation and then tremulous hope. He removed his helmet.

Bright hair and dark roots.

The fear that had been on the soldier's face found a new home with the ghoul. Slowly, Kaneki's eyes widened in disbelief and horror until they dominated his expression entirely. He took a step backwards, looking for an escape route, anywhere but here. _He shouldn't be here He should not be here. He should not be here. Why is he here?_ Advancing at a cautious pace, the human put a hand out in a gesture to keep him from retreating.

Keeping his eyes pointedly off the decimated corpse, Hide said in voice that all too obviously straining. "Don't go. I've been looking everywhere for you."

Mortified, the ghoul frantically scanned his surroundings, looking for something - anything- that might let him escape this. He could run the way that he had came, but then all his progress would be for naught and it would be back into the battlefield again. The windows on the buildings on either side were too high for him to smash. There wasn't enough room to rush past Hide without hurting him. He was trapped, in a bitter irony of the predator being cornered by the prey.

"Anteiku." He said weakly as a question and statement.

Sagging a little under the weight of realization, he dropped his gaze to the side and bit his lip. He struggled, trying and failing to keep his voice from breaking,"Th-they torched it."

Hide thought that the look of utter heartbreak and defeat that surfaced on Kaneki's blood caked features was damn near going to kill him. The stress from conflict with aggressive ghouls already wore on his muscles, joints, and psyche but these paled in comparison to the crushing feeling of seeing those once expressive eyes haunted and now full of pain. He had been trying to keep tabs on Kaneki and keep an eye on him, so he was aware of the change that had occurred. But oh God, he almost preferred the jaded emptiness to this raw, visceral grief. It was as if only a single emotion returned with decimating enthusiasm and that one was pure anguish. 

Snow beneath him gave a crunch as the red streaked figure sunk to the ground, more of a loosely controlled collapse than anything else. Unfocused eyes overflowed with tears that he did nothing about, they mingled with the gore and fell downwards together, landing in thick droplets. Kaneki's posture went stiff when he collided with the frosted concrete, whether from physical pain or otherwise, Hide did not know. But he was reminded, sickeningly, of another corpse in the motionless shape before him that half-knelt, half-reclined against the wall.

The sharp crack of gunfire pierced the air nearby, as a pointed reminder of the situation outside of their little world. It felt distant on the sphere of their periphery. Separate, somehow, from what was happening here. Hide fully wasn't aware that he had walked over to him, perhaps out of instinct, or that he had mimicked the action that led to his friend's sitting arrangement. Kaneki did not look up as the soldier dropped to his height, nor did he look up at the choked sound that came from him. He did consider glancing up as Hide wrapped his arms around the back of his neck, pulling him into a trembling embrace, yet he did not. Thinking of how revolting he was right now, with dead, sticky blood splashed down the front of his clothing and how dangerous it was for Hide, he was extremely close to saying something, yet he did not. His mind had voided, leaving only the triumphant accusation of his failure, confirming what he had dreaded.

Hide was leaning over for the hug, using his whole body and appearing for all the world to shield the ghoul from whatever dare to peer in their direction. Though in truth, he was not protecting Kaneki from observers or enemies. He was trying to hold him together enough so that he would not break into uneven pieces, which not even he could put together again. Saying _I'm sorry_ would be like using a band-aid for a bullet wound and condolences for this, when he worked for part of the group that orchestrated it, felt laughable.  
So instead, Hide forced a watery smile and whispered, "Let's go home."

Tilting his head a few degrees, enough to see his friend's face next to him, Kaneki looked at him dully. Logic told the ghoul that neither one of them would be able to make it out of the alleyway with the raid still in progress. Hide only held him tighter, to the point where the addition of pressure and motion on his injury brought a small wave of pain. He heard the sharp intake of breath and loosened, slightly.

"Let's just go home, 'kay?" It sounded as brittle as he felt.

"...where's that?" The automatic response slipped from his lips before he could revise it, cringing inwardly at how wavery his tone had become.

"We'll know it when we get there."

A distant shriek of pain punctuated the silence that followed between them.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I don't this if this is a fix-it, a worse situation, a best of both worlds or what. It was supposed to just be gross about Kaneki munching on a corpse in the snow but oh well. Like everything else I try to write, it ended up being fuckin' angst woOPSIE.


End file.
